Gamesmanship… : Gamesmanship is “The intention to compete to the limit allowed by the rules and beyond, if it is achievable without a penalty.” A prime example of this is runners who take steroids to increase muscle density and mass, but try to hide the steroids they have taken with more drugs that make it seem as if everything is ok.
With global advertising companies and markets, now virtually ruling the world they can control who makes it and who doesn’t in the case of sport. If a company backs a sportsperson enough they will become famous and be at the height of the sport. However, if a company decides not to back a player/sportsperson for any reason, it would seem likely that they would not get recognised in the global sports world.
Competitors that we hear about normally are the ones who are the best, can run the fastest or can score the most goals. This is because they have been backed by so many companies to succeed.
Sportsmanship as stated above is the intention to compete within the framework of the rules and the intended spirit of the rules. A good example of a sport and team that do this very well is Rugby and the World Cup winning England Rugby team. Rugby is a sport that prides itself on being tough and hard but at the same time being fair. As the old saying goes “Football is a gentleman’s game played by thugs and Rugby is a thugs game played by gentleman.” All rugby teams are expected to play hard, but to play with a huge amount of sportsmanship. Yes there are a number of little spouts of violence now and then but it is totally understandable due to the assertiveness and level of harsh bodily contact needed to play the game. During the 2003 world cup the England Rugby team came under some heavy abuse from the rest of the nations competing. Still, they competed, and fought off all others to become champions, they didn’t retaliate or lash out with violence. They didn’t use the press to abuse other teams, they played they’re own style of rugby and won the world cup.
This is a prime example of sportsmanship in today’s sporting environment. My point is that yes fair play and sportsmanship do exist but only in some sports, in which the players have been brought up top abide by the rules and follow the referee’s decision.
In some sports i.e. Football however, this level of sportsmanship is rarely seen. With players diving to receive penalties, arguing with the referee and generally acting around the limit of the rules football is no longer a sport full of sportsmanship. Football has swung more towards the way of the new term Gamesmanship.
Running is a sport that I have mixed views about. It is highly committed to clamping down on users of performance enhancing drugs, but the trainers of the competitors have do much access to illegal drugs that are being newly made every day that it is hard for the governing body to keep up. Obviously not all the runners use illegal drugs, but I would imagine that the amount who do is more than we hear about.
In my opinion a sport in which levels of fair play and sportsmanship have totally been abandoned is American Football. With the amount of spectators the game gets, the coaches and chairpersons of the clubs like to put out their best players every game. Regardless of their physical health. There are countless times that players have been seen to go off with horrific groin strains and shoulder injuries, but the medical staff and coaches put them right back onto the pitch doped up with huge amounts of pain killers and drugs that will affect their performance. If a player of a sport that has the nature of American football, (being very physical and tough) goes on the pitch to play hyped up on pain killers then are clearly going to perform differently to that of a player who plays with spirit and strength. The other thing about this sport is the way in which each team is always reading the lips of the other teams coach to see what their next move is about to be. Surely if the oppositions know each others moves all the time then the fairness of the sport is lost.
Today’s top athletes all use dietitions, health advisors and personal trainers to become the best at their particular sport.
They all use performance enhancing techniques to improve their sporting ability and performance in competition. But is this against the Sportsmanship/Gamesmanship theory?
With the production of illegal performance enhancing dugs being more and more common in the sporting environment of today , the governing bodies for the particular sports are having more and more trouble detecting whether athletes have used illegal stimulants to help them to train.
To conclude. In today’s sporting world. Nations will use sport as a platform for political power. This can sometimes lead to sportsmanship being thrown aside and made way for other styles of gaming like gamesmanship.
In my own opinion sportsmanship is still strong in many of today’s sports and athlete’s, but if the values of sportsmanship are not upheld, by the governing bodies of the sport, such as the FA then the sport is likely to become worse to be a spectator of and less fair to play in. If the bodies who govern the game do not maintain strong levels of justice and fair play within their own rulings then players will become less sportsmanship and the levels of the sports fair play will drop.
